Patrick Spence, senior vice president and managing director or global sales and regional marketing, defended the brand against criticism in a statement, saying: "Whilst we announced plans to re-focus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base, we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments. We listed BBM, as well as the security and manageability of our platform, amongst our strengths."

BlackBerry shipped just 11.1 million phones in the fourth quarter, a 21 percent reduction in sales. The company also sold just 500,000 PlayBook tablets over the quater, compared to 3 million iPads selling in just 3 days after its recent launch.